China to actively push FTA negotiation with New Zealand: vice premier

Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi told New Zealand trade officials in Beijing on June 10 that China will take active measures to boost the free trade agreement negotiations with New Zealand.

"I hope New Zealand will become the first developed country to establish a free trade area with China," Wu told New Zealand Minister for Trade Negotiations Jim Sutton, who is currently visiting China.

China and New Zealand began FTA talks last year. There has been no announced timetable for the talks. So far China and New Zealand have had three rounds of FTA talks, with the next round due in Beijing in July.

New Zealand was the first Western nation to have reached a bilateral deal with China on its accession to the WTO, and the first developed country to have recognized China's full market economy status and to have launched FTA talks with China.

"We appreciate our New Zealand friends' sincere cooperation and will give active responses to further boost the all-around economic and trade cooperation," Wu told Sutton.

Wu, who negotiated China's entry into the World Trade Organization, said China will actively push forward the FTA negotiation with New Zealand in order to achieve win-win results based on principles of equality and mutual benefit.

Sutton is leading a delegation in China for the first meeting of the China-New Zealand Joint Ministerial Commission which was held in Beijing on Monday.

Sutton said the meeting, which was co-chaired by him and Chinese Minister of Commerce Bo Xilai, was fruitful and the two sides have had effective dialogue on the issues of FTA, two-way investment and service.

In the last decade China and New Zealand witnessed double-digit trade growth. Two-way trade reached 2.5 billion US dollars last year, double the level in 2001. China was the fourth largest trading partner and export market for New Zealand.

The two countries signed an economic cooperation framework last year which aimed to push forward cooperation in the areas of trade, agriculture, forestry, inspection and quarantine, education and tourism.

Source: Xinhua